An affordable option for building a cheap home library, 20th-century hardcover publishers book series included reprints of classics and publisher’s back catalog titles as well as newly commissioned titles. A few series dominated, such as Everyman’s Library and the Modern Library, but there are many others. These pages document the diversity of 20th-century reprint book series. Click on a series below for more information about the series.

Edinburgh Library

With a design similar to their Nelson’s Classics from the 1920’s, the Edinburgh Library (of Non-Fiction Books) was published from about 1919 through the early 1930s. The titles were, as indicated, non-fiction printed in a slightly larger size than Nelson’s Classics.

This copy of W.H. Hudson’s The Book of the Naturalist has no date but probably around 1922. The jacket front contains an illustration glued on the jacket, much like Nelson’s Classics jackets from this era. The lines (boxes) around the illustration and the title/author are also similar to Nelson’s Classics jackets. The spine includes the price, 2/-, and what may be a serial number (MA 158) but the 158 number seems too large for the series (which had at least 60 titles, but not 158. 58 seems likely). A quote from a review is included on the front of the jacket. The front jacket flap is blank. There is no indication of the series name on the jacket front or spine. Later jackets (ca 1930) had fully illustrated jackets, without the glued panel.

The rear of the jacket includes a list of titles in the series with forthcoming titles for July and September 1924. There are 60 titles on this list. 57 are listed in the catalog in the back of the book.

The cloth-bound books are also reminiscent of 1920s era Nelson Classics, in red with gold stamping and a debossed Nelson’s emblem.

The half-title page:

The title page:

The copyright page does not include a date of publication.

A catalog for the Edinburgh Library and New Century Library is included in the back of the book. The catalog is prefaced by a Nelson imprint logo.

The catalog of titles in the series, at 2s. net, indicates 57 titles over three pages.

Nelson’s New Century Library is advertised on the 4th and 5th pages of the catalog.

The series is not mentioned in the book literature after 1931. A few titles in the series seem to have been reprinted with a 1950 date.